Blancmange was a regular pudding in my youth, but it was made out of a packet mix. I truly loathed it, but along with those other horrors of childhood meals, mashed potato and custard, I expect it is all in the making. I have found 2 recipes for it in Mrs Beeton;
Arrowroot blancmange, which requires milk, arrowroot, sugar and lemon rind or vanilla, and
Blancmange (cheap), which calls for sugar, milk, lemon rind, bay leaves and "Swinborne's isinglass or gelatine".
If anyone wants full details, just let me know!
I think this kind of bland and boring food was endemic in the UK in the post war period. Eventually Elizabeth David came along and introduced food from places like Italy, but although my mother-in-law (relatively wealthy, very well educated) would have had her books, my own mother would have regarded them with great suspicion - we were, for example, never allowed to have garlic, peppers, most spices (apart from ginger), pasta other than macaroni, or cheese that smelled of anything at all, in the house. When I first went to France in the late 1970s, I had never had such amazing food as that cooked by my penfriend's mother. I brought back goat's cheese, nectarines, etc - and they were all swiftly consigned to the bin, the cheese taking the first hit as it "makes the fridge stink".
Will write more later - off to vet's again now!
R
